Saturday, August 18, 2007

Afternoon View - Hillside Rec Hall Party

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Morning View - Hillside Campground

Isn't it funny that we have wi-fi out here in the boonies? It poured all the way here (screw you Weather.com) and it poured most of last night. But things let up around 10PM and we were treated to spectacular skies as we gathered around the rec hall bonfire. I had forgotten about stars. There's a lot of 'em. It's cold today, a little too cold, but I can hear disco pumping up the mountain and parties beckon. Here's a story I wrote about Hillside a couple of years ago.

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Friday, August 17, 2007

Chillaxin'

I'm off for three days of gay gay gay camping in the Poconos at Hillside Campground with Aaron, Chris, and the Thruple. It happens to be their "Hog Ranch" weekend, a prospect which would have thrilled me ten years ago, but today makes me rather apprehensive. Strange. As my back has been wrecked for several days, I'm planning on parking myself under the trees, beer cooler within reach. By the way, Thermacare heat wraps? Magical. I have no idea what mysterious force powers those suckers, the one I opened 14 hours ago is still hot. Weather in the mountains is forecast to be rather cool this weekend, lows in the 40's. A perfect antidote for this baking cavern of concrete called Manhattan. Have a great weekend, y'all.

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Rethinking Merv Griffin

Spurred by Michelangelo Signorile's withering appraisal of Merv Griffin's legacy as a closeted gay man, the Hollywood Reporter yesterday published a column posthumously outing Griffin, something the mainstream media had failed to do definitively, despite some making references to Griffin's sexual harassment and gay palimony lawsuits.

After reading Signorile's post and stewing over it a couple a days, I appeared on his Sirius OutQ show on Tuesday to elaborate on my change of opinion on Griffin. As a teenage boy, I would rush home from school to catch Griffin's afternoon show, unaware that the I had been entranced by the show's quintessentially queer subtext. Unable to stay up late for Carson, on Merv I found glamor, movie stars, staged cat fights between divas, and gay act after gay act. On Merv, I saw Sylvester live for the first time. I saw Truman Capote, Sir Monti Rock III, Liberace, and on and on. I didn't know at the time exactly what it was about Merv that struck such a chord with me, but there it was. Merv was gay, his show was gay. I knew it, but I didn't know I knew it.

Once Merv's show left the air, I pretty much forgot about him. I read the occasional news story about his post-show biz triumphs as a real estate mogul, and I suppose I admired him for his ingenious crafting of game shows with such broad appeal that local versions popped up in every country in the world. But now, we must review Merv Griffin in a different light.

For over 20 years after leaving the public eye, utterly safe from any career damage that coming out might have cost him, Merv Griffin remained silent. He remained silently by the side of the Reagans, his good friends, as AIDS devastated his show business colleagues. His billions, undirected to the fight. His name, unlent. Some may say that no man is required to come out, no man is obligated to come to the aid of his fellow queer, that a life lived quietly - doing no harm - is all that we should ask.

I disagree.

With enormous wealth, power, and prestige, comes enormous responsibility. Merv Griffin had a moral responsibility to publicly, with great noise, come to aid of his fellow queers, wielding his heavy checkbook. He had a moral responsibility to disavow Ronald Reagan, instead he carried Reagan's casket. How different might the early AIDS years have been, if Merv Griffin, who had the ear of Ronald Reagan, had coaxed the man to pay some FUCKING ATTENTION? How different would the early plague years have been had Merv Griffin tossed a couple of hundred of his millions to researchers, who were screaming for more government funding?

Tim Gill. Brooke Astor. Bill Gates. Those are names that history will treat kindly. Those are humans who recognized that their awesome wealth imbued them with awesome responsibilities. I'm not interested in whatever charities Merv Griffin may have supported. He did not support us, queers, his people. Merv Griffin was a successful singer. A successful TV personality. A successful entrepreneur. But as a gay man, as a human being, he was a failure.
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Morning View - Hans Christian Anderson

During the summertime, Central Park's Hans Christian Anderson statue is the location for authors reading live from new original works.

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Thursday, August 16, 2007

Storage Firm Shakes Up Pro-Lifers

Over the last year, I've written a couple of times about Manhattan Mini-Storage's billboard campaigns, which comment amusingly on a broad range of social and pop culture issues, ranging from the government's wiretapping to Paris Hilton and the Queer Eye guys. Their latest series, which started a few months ago, is beginning to cause a lot of upset among pro-lifers, as evidenced by this CBS news story. I think the new campaign is both clever and sobering. After all, what's thought to be the third most common usage for a hanger, after hanging clothes and retrieving locked car keys? The Catholic League is complaining and asking New Yorkers to boycott the company. Makes me wish I had something to store, just so I could patronize Manhattan Mini-Storage.

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MoveOn.Org: Dick Cheney Was Right

Left-wing activists MoveOn.org are circulating this 1994 Dick Cheney interview in which he correctly predicts the quagmire of a potential invasion of Iraq. Listen to our prescient VP play Nostradamus, predicting exactly what DID happen.

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Morning View - 777 Third Avenue

The only reason I include such a blah-looking building as 777 Third in the Morning View series is because it is the home of Grey Group, the massive advertising agency conglomerate. Mediacom Worldwide, one of Grey's buying agencies, is also at 777 Third.

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Open Thread Thursday

A couple of weeks ago I read a funny new novel, Paul Schmidtberger's Design Flaws Of The Human Condition, in which, Ken, the gay lead character, and his partner of several years receive separate invitations for a friend's wedding. Incensed, Ken devised this response:

He zipped out the door and bought a beautiful long oval copper-plated fish poaching dish from Williams & Sonoma, which cost a fortune, and then sawed it in half - lid and all. And then they had the two halves beautifully wrapped and delivered to the reception all well in advance of Kara's wedding. You send separate invites, you get separate gifts - it's that simple. The thank you notes - plural - were also simple: Kara tersely thanked each of them for the "thoughtful" gift, which they thought was hilarious since it was inadvertently truthful - they really had put a lot of thought into their gifts.
That raises today's Open Thread. Have you and your partner been separately invited or plus-one'd to events where the host clearly knows you are partnered but choses to ignore that? Perhaps an office party or coworker's wedding - and your colleagues received invites addressed to "Bob AND Mary"? How have you handled this situation? And how do you handle it when one of you is not invited? What about "spouses welcome!" situations?

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Wednesday, August 15, 2007

HomoQuotable - Steve Schalchlin

"Gay people who are raised in a religious environment, a conservative religious environment are basically told, 'You're not good enough / you don't belong here / you need to change / you need to be something else.' And so, in a lot of our lives, we end up leaving the church and hating God or hating Religion or hating the whole nine yards. But an inherently spiritual person doesn’t really lose the core of their being. So it’s going to come out somewhere."

"I think that what we discovered is that it comes out of theater, because theater and church are essentially the same thing. They are story-telling, they are inspirational, and they are true. Theatre brings an even higher truth sometimes. Church basically repeats the same old story over and over again. I often wonder if that’s not one of the reasons so many gay people wind up getting into theater. We’re always told that the reasons are because we're used to hiding and wearing masks and being somebody else. But I think there's something more profound." - Steve Schalchlin, in an extensive interview with the San Francisco Sentinel. (Via Andrew Sullivan.)

That's a fascinating take on why some of the gays go into the performing arts. If you are a performer, do you agree? Steve and his partner Jim Brochu's hit musical, The Big Voice: God Or Merman, has extended its run at SF's New Conservatory Theatre through August 26th. Here's my review of The Big Voice's recent Off Broadway run.

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Daily Show On Visible Vote

I'm kinda heavy on the videos today, but I cannot resist sharing last night's Daily Show take on last week's Visible Vote '08 forum. Remember last year when I asked who was gay America's best straight ally? Yup, still Jon Stewart.

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Karma Kameelians

Local Buddhists went to Chinatown and purchased $7000 worth of live eels, turtles, and frogs and then set them free in the Passaic River - in the hopes of improving their karma. The New Jersey EPA will be rebalancing their karmic windfall with a $1000 fine for releasing non-native species into an open environment. Existence is suffering. For idiots, especially so.

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Clinton: You Are Invisible To The President


Hillary Clinton launched her first television commercial this week, in which she declares that soldiers, single moms, and the uninsured are "invisible" to the president. The White House immediately issued a strong criticism, calling Clinton's ad "absurd", "outrageous" and "unconscionable." Clinton turned around and put their complaints right up on her campaign site. Good for her.

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My Back Was Gotten

I know I should thank a lot of you folks for rushing over to Baptists For Brownback yesterday to defend me on their demand that I be arrested and JMG deleted. But you do know that the site is satire, right? Right? Their post is pushing 600 comments now and the authors are keeping the joke running. I'd be exhausted by now. Towards the end of the day, I got an email from a certain local famous author, who said, "The good news, Joe, is that you know you will always have legions of defenders." Even if they didn't get the joke, that's nice.

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BearForce1

About 50 of y'all sent me this fun video yesterday. Here's "the world's first bearband", BearForce1, giving a Stars On 45 approach to a dozen or so HI-NRG '80s hits. I hear Amanda Lear, Donna Summer, Mel & Kim, Sabrina, Yaz, Sylvester, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Fun Fun, Dead Or Alive, maybe a couple of other things. Three of them are from Amsterdam, one is from Belfast. Fun and they're cute! Stars On 45 were from Holland too, maybe there's a connection? There have been other bears bands, Isotoners and Bearatones come to mind.

Morning View - Time Travel

This sign went up on Friday, in front of Trump Palace on Third Avenue. Remind me not to use East 68th Street in case I decide to go back in time. To May. Go DOT!

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Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Hairpiece Prayer Watch

Washington DC, Sunday afternoon

For unknown reasons, Chuck Norris' exercise infomercial is playing on the TV in our hotel room.

Jerry: Ugh, I can't believe I used to think he was hot.
JMG: I don't think I ever did, but especially not now that he's a right-wing nutjob. He writes a column on some Christianist website. It's mostly about Jeebus. And kung-fu.
Ken: Well, he needs to ask Jeebus for a better wig.

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Giuliani Wing-Nut Makeover Continues

Failing to reciprocate the love offered last week by Newsday's bizarre declaration that Rudy Giuliani is the presidential candidate with the best track record on gay rights, "America's Mayor" is now backing away from his previous support for gay civil unions. Now, campaign staffers are telling the Boston Globe that Giuliani feels New Hampshire's civil union law "goes too far" because "it is the equivalent of marriage." Empire State Pride Agenda head Joe Tarver says he is "disappointed" and that backing away from civil unions is "pretty un-Giuliani-like" Tarver said: "It's quite obvious he's playing to the people whose votes he needs to get the Republican nomination."

Scumbag. Two-faced. Enemy of the people. And our second nominee for Asshat Of The Year. Move over, Mayor Naugle, there's another mayor on the shitlist.

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Swag Tuesday

This week's Swag Tuesday booty is two tickets to this season's Broadway smash, Xanadu, which has won rave reviews from all corners: the New York Times, Variety, and the New Yorker, which gushes, "The Most Fun You'll Have On Broadway! Ridiculously Brilliant, Lavish and Sublime!" (Also gushing: me.)

Written by Tony-nominated Douglas Carter Beane (The Little Dog Laughed) and featuring the original music from the 1980 movie as well as classics from Electric Light Orchestra and Olivia Newton-John, Xanadu features memorable performances from leads Kerry Butler and Cheyenne Jackson, with scenery-chewing provided by the hilarious evil muses, Mary Testa and Jackie Hoffman.

Enter to win tickets to Xanadu by commenting on this post. If you can't get to NYC, your tickets are transferable to the theatre queens of your choice. Your winning entry may be redeemed for any performance, based on availability. Entries close at midnight today. Only your first comment is valid and please remember to leave your email address. Publicists: if you'd like take part in Swag Tuesday on JMG, please email me.(Photo credit: Paul Kolnik.)

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Ad Shilling To Die For

You may recall Joseph R. Gannascoli, who played the gay mafioso Vito Spatafore on HBO's The Sopranos. When Vito was discovered to be gay, the other mobsters beat him to death while sodomizing him with a pool cue. Now that the show is over, Gannascoli is capitalizing on his character's Louima-esque demise by teaming up with Rockwell Billiards to promote the sale of a pool cue with the tagline, "A Cue To Die For." The name of the cue is both a play on how Gannascoli was killed in The Sopranos and on the title of his new crime novel, A Meal To Die For.

GLAAD is not too happy about the pool cue campaign, with president Neil Guiliano saying, "It's highly inappropriate that what served as a very real example of the hateful violence the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community faces is now being used as a gimmick to sell a product. The insensitive inclusion of the pool cue in the 'To Die For' marketing theme betrays the legacy of The Sopranos character and is unacceptable." Gannascoli recently appeared on Celebrity Fit Club and is also marketing a luxury cigar line as "A Cigar To Die For."

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Move Over, Betty Bowers

You have been outdone.
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Morning View - Lipstick Building

At 53rd & Third, the 34-story Phillip Johnson co-designed Lipstick Building went up in 1986. Built to resemble a tube of red lipstick (I see brown, but whatevs) the tower is home to the headquarters of the massive international law firm, Latham & Watkins.

The Lipstick is my favorite Phillip Johnson building in Manhattan. His Seagram Building (co-designed with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe), the 1958 landmark "classic of corporate modernism" and first of the dreary glass boxes which bore the sky of cities worldwide, leaves me completely cold.

Last month an Israeli investment group agreed to buy the Lipstick for $648M, continuing Manhattan's march toward complete foreign ownership.

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Monday, August 13, 2007

Gotham Dims: Brooke Astor Dead At 105

The flags at the Metropolitan Museum of Art are flying at half-mast today. Brooke Astor has died at age 105, taking with her, perhaps, the final bit of New York City's so-called Gilded Age of elegance and privilege. Known for the last four decades as the "leading lady" of high society, the unofficial First Lady of NYC, Ms. Astor used the money she inherited from her third husband, Vincent Astor (who inherited his millions when his father went down with the Titanic), to fund numerous charities, including the New York Public Library, the Lighthouse For The Blind, and the Fresh Air Fund - all while playing grand dame hostess to the most exclusive events of the last half of the 20th century. Lesser known is Astor's key role in Jacqueline Onassis' triumph in preserving Grand Central Terminal. By the time Astor dissolved her foundation in 1997, she had donated almost $200M to New York City charities. In 1998, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her philanthropy.

While many of "the ladies who lunch", whether idle rich or business baronesses, are rightfully regarded as opportunistic, even cruel (see: Leona Helmsley), by all accounts Brooke Astor was gracious, warm, and above all, generous. Sadly, Ms. Astor's final years were wrought with accusations of elder abuse at the hands of her son, an elderly 81 himself, and in 2006 she was successfully removed from his guardianship by her grandson. I imagine that this evening, more than a few gay men in Manhattan will be tipping a cocktail to her memory.

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San Diego FD Changes Parade Rules

The San Diego Fire Department has changed its policy regarding firefighters and parades. In the future, on-duty firemen will no longer be required to drive in any parade. All future parade participation will be on a volunteer basis and four hours of overtime will be paid to those that volunteer. The right-wing Christian law firm representing the firemen who claim they were sexually harassed at this year's Pride parade say that the new policy does not go far enough to ensure that no one is ordered to participate in parades. Not far enough? What part of "volunteer basis" don't they understand?

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Love The Sinner, Hate The Service

Gay blogs are buzzing with outrage today over an Arlington, Texas church's cancellation of the funeral of a gay man. The High Point Church cancelled the service, planned for Wednesday, after viewing memorial photos of the deceased hugging and kissing male friends.

Towleroad reports: [Reverend Gary] Simons defended his decision to renege on the offer to his congregation on Sunday, and reportedly received a hearty round of applause. Said Simons: "This decision was not based on hate, or discrimination, but upon principle and policy. We cannot glorify homosexuality as a lifestyle."

Pam Spaulding quotes the church further: "We did decline to host the service - not based on hatred, not based on discrimination, but based on principle. Had we known it on the day they first spoke about it - yes, we would have declined then. It's not that we didn't love the family. Even though we could not condone that lifestyle, we went above and beyond for the family through many acts of love and kindness."-- Rev. Gary Simons, minister at High Point Church in Arlington, justifying the church's decision.

The dead man's partner posted a lengthy comment on Box Turtle Bulletin which reads in part: "First of all, let me start by stating that it was a member of the church who offered the use of their facility to us, on behalf of his brother who is/was a member of their congregation. I was introduced to this man as Cecil’s partner. To my knowledge, this person at least was fully aware that we were living openly as a couple. This same member of the church, when were later advised that we could not use the facilities, on his own, with money from his own pocket, not church coffers, went and procured another facility for the funeral. The church did not do so. At no time did a member of the church contact us to indicate that they had a problem with any part of the service we were planning. We never had contact with the minister or any of the administration."

Nothing about any of this is surprising to me. Increasingly, I find myself numbed to Christianist outrages.

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HomoQuotable - Jonathan Capehart

"To gays and lesbians, flubbing the choice-vs.-nature question is like botching the answer to "What's one plus one?" Note to [New Mexico Governor] Richardson's current and former gay staffers and supporters: Do an intervention -- and get him an Ambien -- before he implodes again." - Visible Vote '08 panelist and Washington Post reporter Jonathan Capehart, commenting on Richardson's contention that jet lag caused him to answer as he did.

Capehart goes on to say that he "doesn't fault" Clinton, Obama, or Edwards for their opposition to gay marriage, agreeing that political pragmatism trumps personal ideals in the campaign. Capehart: "Many gays and lesbians couldn't care less about the political calculus involved in gay marriage. They are being denied basic civil rights, and they want them now."

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Bloomberg Revs Up Non-Campaign

NYC Mayor Michael "Not Running For President" Bloomberg will be touring the country this fall to raise money for the World Trade Center Memorial Fund. Purely by coincidence, the states he will visit happen to be the important early presidential primary states: South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Michigan, Virginia, Wisconsin.

Oh, and he also recently bought the following domains: Mike08.com, Bloomberg08.com, and MikeBloomberg08.com. Just because. A third-party Bloomberg candidacy would wreak havoc on the Democrats. I'm still hoping he takes second-billing for Hillary.

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Hey! What's That Bright Stuff
At The End Of This Tunnel?

Dubya will announce later today that Karl "Voldemort" Rove will resign from his post at the end of this month. Rove told the Wall Street Journal that White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten told Bush administration officials that anybody who stayed past Labor Day would be expected to work out the remainder of the term. Once Rove leaves, Bush's body will kept in stasis until a suitably evil brain donor can be found.

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Merv Griffin, 82

Merv Griffin, the quietly gay legendary talk show host, entrepreneur, and game show creator, died of prostate cancer this weekend. The creator of Jeopardy! and Wheel Of Fortune, Griffin made billions, occasionally landing on Forbes list of the world's richest men. Married in 1958, divorcing 15 years and one son later, Griffin was well-known to be gay, although he kept his gayness very private, only telling the press that, "I am quatre-sexual. I'll do anything for a quarter." In 1991, Griffin was sued for sexual harassment by Dance Fever host Denny Terio. That same year, a personal bodyguard sued for $200M in palimony. Both suits were dismissed.

When Merv's afternoon talk show was on in '70s, I was a regular viewer, particularly enjoying his frequent guests Charo and Totie Fields and his repartee' with his faithful audience member, Mrs. Miller. Merv would open the show by displaying the linings of his custom jackets, always accompanied by his trademarked (and frequently parodied) expression, "Oooooooooooh." I was always a little disappointed that a powerful man like Merv never became a gay advocate, but he did always handle the press with humor and dignity.

TRIVIA: Merv had a huge hit on the pop charts in 1949 with I've Got A Lovely Bunch Of Coconuts. The single sold 3 million copies.

UPDATE: Michelanglo Signorile has a rather blistering opinion of Griffin, mentioning his close affiliation with the Reagans and his purported habit of firing openly gay employees. Signorile has me rethinking my fond memories of Merv Griffin.

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Morning View -
Manhattan Bridge Exit

The Beaux Arts exit from the Manhattan Bridge to Canal Street is closed during repairs to the lower roadway, allowing me to grab this shot. Based on Paris' Porte St. Denis arch, it's normally clogged with vehicles.

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Sunday, August 12, 2007

Another Smash Blowoff

Blowoff was a smash, as always: great tunes, cool video effects, hot banners, and packed with friendly faces. Two highlights: Bob Mould spinning a great reworking of Bronksi Beat's Smalltown Boy and Why, during which a hot thing named Jocelyn (pictured below) blew us away singing along so amazingly on the dance floor that my goosebumps had goosebumps. Somebody needs to record that chick, pronto. Later Rich Morel tore the roof off with Bad Cabbage's Your Rude [sic], which seems like a bottom's anthem, what with the lyric "I just wanna get fucked by you, but you just wanna get fucked." Hilarious. (The linked video isn't nearly as good as the version Rich played, but you get the idea.) Rich also played his killer Killers remix of All These Things That I've Done, which is unreleased. I got soul, but I'm not a solider. One of the coolest things about Blowoff is hearing shit that you can't hear anywhere else. Blowoff comes to NYC next month, with a special event at the Meatpacking District's fab new venue, the ultra-mod Highline Ballroom. People have been jonesing for Blowoff to come to NYC for years, so get your tickets quickly, it will surely sell out.

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